Intersect360 Research CEO Addison Snell talks to HPCwire Editor Nicole Hemsoth about hot topics in HPC in their weekly podcast. This week it includes a review of a recent IBM Technical Computing (HPC) conference, which covers IBM's strategic direction when it comes to technical computing, beyond traditional supercomputers.

"In Q4 2012 IBM System z reported a 56% growth in revenues – the highest absolute dollar amount since before 2000 and 66% in MIPS – the most absolute number of MIPS shipped in history for this measurement of shipped processing power."

"IBM has signed more than 180 new accounts since the introduction of the zEnterprise in Q3 2010, with 71 added in 2012; since mid-2011 half of these were ‘first in enterprise’ purchases – the remainder split between those who bought for the first time in 10 years and those expanding their mainframe use to a new geography ... In addition to the accelerated adoption of zEnterprise for Linux consolidation, over a third of the ‘first in enterprise’ clients are running z/OS."

"Over time it seems likely that the almost religious objection by non-IBM vendors and customers to the mainframe will subside – we’re moving to a time when workloads, rather than underlying platform will drive investment."